NGEN - Integrate code from PR #919

[christophertubbs]

The code from PR #919 needs to be vetted and injected into the main branch

[christophertubbs]

The serialization code needs to be hammered with log and documentation warnings that it is non-functional. No one should be able to hit those code paths without it being blatantly obvious that the design is not complete and the backing code has critical errors.

[christophertubbs]

UPDATE:

This is still blocked due to showstoppers from upstream models.